Our Association is big, and sometimes, it’s not just our initiates, but outside people also come in to eat. So I told you that you must wear gloves when you get the food, for example. […] What I said is according to hygiene, good logic, not that I am being strict, making things different than the norm. But many people don’t know, just copy like that. […] They cook just for themselves, but also wear gloves and mask, what for? […] But sometimes, that person even teaches others to wear gloves and mask, even though they are all single. […] Then, if one of them happens to be a journalist, he would write bad stuff, calling us “the glove-wearing religion”! How tiresome! Really tiresome! Once you are famous, it’s very troublesome. I knew that being famous, I would suffer. I just didn’t expect I would suffer in such a weird way, so funny like that. Being spoken against for something so trivial.
So when you practice, you don’t just listen to my teachings, but you have to contemplate on what I teach. And supplement it with your inner wisdom by meditating enough, so that you can understand what I meant behind those words. You have to understand the main meaning and the profound meaning of my teachings. It’s not about hearing something and then doing it, saying, “Master told us so.” And just copying what others do, just like… That’s why in some religious organizations, people just practice outward rituals. They just bow to the [wooden] Buddha, and don’t know whom they bow to. We should bow to a living Buddha. What for do we bow to the wooden one?
When we are doing the Quan Yin meditation, we don’t want others to see, for example, or want to block out some light. That’s it. Then later on, when we pass away, the disciples pass away, I pass away, the people will say, “My God, in the Madame Ching Hai’s religion, you must have a cloth, and then a cushion. And that cloth, that cushion, no one can touch. Only the owner uses them. Those things are very sacred, the demons would even die when you beat them with it.” For example like that. […] The cloth is not the one that is sacred. Understand? It’s the person who beats [the demon] is sacred. […] Because it is the power of the person, not the cloth. […]
One soul must have the power in order to transmit that power to the other soul. This process is invisible. Just hearing someone read the written instructions alone is not enough. The invisible power is not visible, so it cannot be transmitted using our languages or sutras. Therefore, initiation is required. At the time of initiation, the invisible power within our human body is opened. But the teacher must have the power in order to open up our invisible power. […]
